Have you heard of BzzAgent? I’ve been a member of this word-of-mouth advertising website for over three years now. During this time, I’ve tried tons of new products (free!) ranging from girlie beauty products to tasty edibles to awesome tech, and everything in between. Do I feel dirty shilling for The Man? Yeah, a little, but you can rest assured that I’ve only ever given my honest opinions and I definitely haven’t promoted the stuff I didn’t feel great about.

So what am I trying now? I’m in three campaigns at the time, but I’ve only received samples for two of them, so I’ll leave the third review for later. The first is Burt’s Bees Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin. I received a full size Sensitive Daily Moisturizing Cream and Sensitive Facial Cleanser. First thoughts: wow, this stuff is pricey, at $15 and $10, respectively. Though I’ll admit, I’m a cheapskate when it comes to beauty products, and pretty lazy when it comes to skin care in general. I don’t have the most sensitive skin in the world, so I’m not totally the target audience here, but I can appreciate products that are gentle on the skin as much as anybody. Now, I can’t seem to find the facial cleanser on EWG’s Skin Deep database but the moisturizer is listed as a 3 on a scale of 0-10, on the low end of “moderate concern”. Ok, not too bad. I’ve used them a few times since receiving them. My face feels…clean and moisturized. Which I guess is the point. The products have no scent (duh) so I can’t really describe much else, except they seem to do what they claim, and without irritating my (admittedly not super-sensitive) skin.

The second campaign I’m part of is Green Mountain CoffeeFair Trade. My only previous experience with their product was at a gas station somewhere in Massachusetts after 14 hours of driving overnight, and it was pretty bad. Apparently, there are a lot of ways you can ruin a pot of coffee as a gas station attendant, so I’ll give Green Mountain the benefit of the doubt on that one. I got two packages of ground coffee in the mail yesterday, which was excellent timing because I ran out that same morning and didn’t have time to get to the grocery. Anyway, the two flavors were their Pumpkin Spice seasonal and Organic House blend. I was a little sad that I didn’t get whole bean coffee, but I think I’ll get over it. For the record, let me preface this review with this disclaimer: I am no coffee connoisseur. I didn’t start drinking it until well after my son was born (he’s 18 months now) and I love to add loads of raw sugar and almond milk to make it palatable (oh yes, I drink it for the caffeine). That said, yum! The Pumpkin Spice tasted just like fall! It was sort of a coffee-chai hybrid with the amount of spice that comes through. Totally up my alley. My husband likes to use the leftover coffee to make a chocolate-milk-coffee-vanilla almond milk afternoon pick-me-up, so needless to say, that drink was a total hodgepodge of flavors (pumpkivanispicemochalmondmilk?), but tasty nonetheless. I don’t have one brand of coffee I always drink, so this one may be rotated into the regulars this fall. I obviously haven’t opened the second package yet.

The next campaign is for Kroger’s Truly Awesome Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies! Definitely looking forward to that one!